William Eggleston

MoMA's 1976 exhibition William Eggleston's Guide helped push color photography into the museum art world. At the time, serious art photography was still often associated with black-and-white work by figures such as Walker Evans and Robert Frank.

Eggleston photographed ordinary subjects such as diners, tricycles, gas stations, ceilings, streets, and suburban interiors. His 1970s color images made everyday Southern scenes feel formally charged without turning them into traditional documentary stories.

The image is often called The Red Ceiling or Greenwood, Mississippi, and it was made in the early 1970s. Its saturated red color is closely linked to Eggleston's use of dye-transfer printing.

Both Eggleston and Stephen Shore helped establish color photography in American art during the 1970s. Eggleston's work often feels more intuitive and fragmentary, while Shore's Uncommon Places is more visibly tied to road-trip structure and large-format description.